[network] Day 387 | @beyonce | Naive [open] [audio]

[thewarningafter]

[There was the usual panic, of course. The usual frantic escape from the bodybag into the cold air of the morgue. No new memories this time, no mistaking this waking life for a dream. No forgetting what had happened--what he had allowed to happen. Stephen isn't even out of the morgue before he gets on the network with a pressing question.]

This is Stephen Strange; I'm alive again. Has anyone seen David? Did he make it out?

Comments

@betterhalf; text

[darkincrement]

What's the price this time?

@beyonce | audio

[thewarningafter]

That's not an answer to my question.

@betterhalf; text

[darkincrement]

It's more interesting.

[ To Vanitas. ]

perma-audio

[thewarningafter]

I don't care. I'm not here to amuse you. Have you heard from David?

[darkincrement]

Haven't heard from him.

@godsend, audio

[termineur]

He didn't make it out, as far as I can tell. You both ended up on the Obits together. Haven't heard from him, either, but I'm not exactly in his circle of friends.

[thewarningafter]

[And Stephen immediately takes that claim at face value.]

Of course. Of course not.

I can't keep doing this.

perma-audio

[thewarningafter]

I got him killed, then.

[He'd known better than to think David would have made it out when he didn't. He'd seen more than enough at the end to know better. The confirmation aches, though.]

[darkincrement]

Dying? I agree.

[ Hoping for others to return is also stupid, Stephen. ]

[termineur]

[ Gabriel sighs, slightly annoyed. ] You didn't. David made his own decisions, and it's not like it's hard to die around here. Don't put the blame on yourself, okay?

How are you doing, other than...all of that? Know what your death price is yet?

[thewarningafter]

[That stops him up short. What's that supposed to mean?]

What?

No, that's not...not what I meant....

[darkincrement]

It should be.

[ What the hell is up with these heroes and their lack of self preservation ]

[thewarningafter]

[That's a hard pill to swallow, but Gabriel has a point. Stephen didn't force David to do anything. He's silent for a moment, still feeling hurt over it.]

I don't know yet. It's probably something mental again; I can't tell that anything's missing.

I should have known better.

[thewarningafter]

...You think so?

[He'd thought not getting other people killed was the more important thought, but....]

[termineur]

[ Okay, he's moving from a sigh to a groan. Why did he make 'hero' friends again? ]

There's no way you could've, okay? Too much of this is uncertain. We'll get it tracked down and figured out, but these new areas are always dicey. It sucks, but that's how it is.

[ -wait, mental death price. Maybe it's a truth thing. In which case Gabriel should probably take back that groan. ] Are you feeling like you've got to voice all your thoughts?

[thewarningafter]

[That's...reassuring to hear, actually. No way he could have known. Right? They'd had a plan. The plan should have worked. He couldn't have known. But David is still dead, one way or the other.

He pauses, thinking for a second that perhaps Gabriel has hit on the price--but no.]

No. No, I don't think so. Not this time. And I know your name, and unless we've had this conversation before it's not amnesia again.

[termineur]

Nope, this is the first time, so it's not any of those...and that means it's something new. So that'll be fun to figure out.

[ Ugh, it's always mental with Stephen, isn't it? ]

We can try to chat it out if you want, but if you want to just wait and hope it doesn't pop up and bother you too much, that's fine, too. At least we can tell from this that it's not interfering with your use of the Network.

[thewarningafter]

[He hesitates again, considering the options. It worries him not to know, but Gabriel's right. It doesn't seem to be impairing his ability to function.]

Tell me what I've missed instead.

[darkincrement]

[ That's an odd response. ]

Obviously. You can only look after yourself.

[ Says the kid who is making sure Gabriel and Billy doesn't get themselves killed. ]

@captaininvincible, text

[notaquaman]

yea he's gone man
welcome back tho

[It's good to hear from you. :( ]

[thewarningafter]

[That's...kind of devastating to hear, actually. He's always been more than that. Used to be more than that. But Vanitas is right; he's fallen so far that he can't even keep one other person alive, let along do anything that's going to help the group.]

I thought...I thought I could....

perma-audio

[thewarningafter]

...I'm sorry. I should have known better; I never should have agreed to it, thought we could just...work around it when no one else had....

-->private

[termineur]

Sure. -ah, wait a second--

[ He switches to private, because he always tries to be careful when talking about their hacker friend. ]

Winter contacted us again. She's running on low power, so parts of her message blacked out. But you should still be able to read it on the Network if you look. It looks like Angel handed Andromeda's app to her- we're waiting to see if she can do anything with it.

-->private

[thewarningafter]

[Probably best to keep it private on a few counts. Stephen listens with interest.]

I was hoping we'd get another chance to talk to her. I'm glad Angel thought of it; I'd wanted to hand the code over to her as soon as we got it.

private

[termineur]

Yeah. I mean, it's not just code, for Winter.

Anyway, she's working on that. I hope she doesn't blow the rest of her power trying to do something with it, but we're pretty low on options right now. I don't think she's all that concerned about herself.